LEADS: Discovery across the campus

Editor’s note: The following letter, written by Godwin Ahiase, doctoral student in Education, Health & Behavior Studies at UND; Sherry Zeman, senior pre-award officer for UND’s office of Research and Sponsored Program Development; and Amanda Haage, director of the Imaging Core facility and an assistant professor of Biomedical Sciences at the UND School of Medicine & Health Science, introduces a special edition of UND Today devoted to the Discovery core value of the UND LEADS Strategic Plan. Head over to UND Today to read the full selection of stories.

By Godwin Ahiase, Sherry Zeman and Amanda Haage

At the University of North Dakota, “Discovery” means advancing the frontiers of knowledge, in ways that traditionally get communicated through peer-reviewed journals.
And it also means much more.

As the UND LEADS Strategic Plan describes, Discovery – the “D” in LEADS – also means creative expression, or making art. It means innovative teaching, or helping students themselves discover the wonders of the world.

It means supporting those endeavors, secure in the knowledge that this support is helping the University succeed at a foundational task.

In this letter, we’ll describe how Discovery motivates our work, in the above and similar ways. Traditional research is very much a part of this and is a source of tremendous pride. But Discovery is a force behind many other tasks, too, and is a huge part of what makes life and work at UND and work so special. Here’s how.

The essence of Discovery

• From Godwin Ahiase, a doctoral student in Education, Health & Behavior Studies at UND:

“Much of my work revolves around understanding how people and institutions can achieve better outcomes,” Ahiase says. “Whether I am conducting research, supporting strategic planning efforts, or serving in leadership and governance roles, the process often begins the same way: asking questions, gathering evidence, and seeking a deeper understanding of what drives improvement.

“For me, this process reflects the essence of Discovery.

“At UND, I see that process unfold in both my research and my work as a Graduate Service Assistant for the Office of Strategy & Implementation, where I support Metrics and Alignment for the UND LEADS Implementation Committee,” Ahiase continues. “My role involves collecting, organizing, and analyzing data related to strategic initiatives across the university and helping connect those efforts to UND’s strategic priorities. Each project requires research, testing ideas, developing new tools, refining processes, and communicating findings through reports, dashboards, and strategic analyses.

“Discovery occurs when information is transformed into meaningful insights that help the university understand its progress, evaluate outcomes, and make informed decisions,” Ahiase notes.

“What I appreciate most about UND’s Discovery core value is that it recognizes that innovation happens across the entire university. Whether through research, teaching, applied learning, leadership, service, or strategic planning, discovery helps us generate knowledge, improve our work, and move UND forward.”

A front-row seat

• Writes Sherry Zeman, senior pre-award officer for UND’s office of Research and Sponsored Program Development:

“The Research and Sponsored Program Development office at UND supports the UND LEADS Strategic Plan and its goals through our spirit of inquiry and our desire to better understand the world around us. Specifically, our office administers the pre-award functions of proposal submission and award negotiation for sponsored funding applications on campus.

“In my role as senior pre-award officer, I like to think that I bridge the gap between the researchers and the sponsored funding by supporting the day-to-day management of sponsored research projects,” Zeman continues. “In reviewing and negotiating funding notices and ensuring compliance with sponsors and institutional policies, the hand-off of fully executed agreements and funding sources to researchers becomes a little less complicated.

“Our behind-the-scenes work ensures researchers can focus on their projects without being bogged down by administrative complexities. In my position, I’m fortunate to support researchers across campus and grateful for the front row seat to the joy of Discovery.”

This is what discovery looks like

• And here’s the perspective of Amanda Haage, director of the Imaging Core facility and an assistant professor of Biomedical Sciences at the UND School of Medicine & Health Science:

“In Teaching Critical Thinking, Bell Hooks writes that ‘Integrity is present when there is a congruence or agreement between what we think, say, and do,’” Haage notes. “As scholars, we often celebrate discovery as the new knowledge we contribute to our specific fields. Super important! Yet integrity challenges us to ask whether we apply that same enthusiasm and scholarship to our teaching or even our own higher education ecosystem.

“I was trained as a cell biologist, heavy in microscopy and bench work. But more importantly, I was trained to think like a scholar – how to ask questions and approach problems using the best evidence. That habit of mind has shaped far more than my time in the lab. It has led me to redesign my teaching using evidence from the science of learning, resulting in courses that integrate active learning, writing and reflection, and authentic human experiences into STEM education.

“It has also led me to ask questions about the academy itself. My research on transparency and equity in faculty hiring began not because I was trained in higher education, but because I experienced firsthand how opaque the faculty job market can be and discovered how little evidence there was to answer the questions myself and other early-career academics were asking.

“To me, this is what discovery looks like: recognizing important problems, following the evidence wherever it leads, and applying it to improve the world around us.

“That is one of the reasons I value being part of the UND community,” Haage concludes.

“I recently participated in a Teaching Transformation and Development Academy summer workshop, and I looked around the room at familiar faces and thought, ‘These are my people.’ They’re not all my peers in the same college, discipline, or even academic role, but they are my peers in integrity.

“They are willing to step outside their disciplinary expertise and engage with the scholarship needed for our universal task of teaching. They remind me that discovery is not confined to our disciplines; it is also found in our willingness to remain learners ourselves.

“That culture is one of the things I am most proud of at UND.”